Cognitive Functioning

How Moderate Wine Consumption slows Cognitive Decline

Mental function in humans decreases with age. There are a multitude of factors that account for this phenomenon and several diseases that speed up this unfortunately inevitable process. The most common diseases that affect cognitive function are Alzhiemer’s disease and Vascular Dementia.

Dr. Ganguli et. al.’s study Alcohol consumption and cognitive function late in life, studied the relationship between alcohol consumption and cognitive decline. This longitudinal study sampled a large population of an elderly community.

They used trail making, learning and naming tests to evaluate any mental decline in cognition. It was found that those who consumed a moderate amount of alcohol showed a lesser decline on test performance over the course of the experiment. Bring them to the conclusion that moderate drinking is associated with a slower decline in cognitive function.

Another study about alcohol’s relationship with cognitive decline was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). In Dr. Mukamal et. al.’s study, Prospective Study of Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Dementia in Older Adults , they examined the possible relationship between alcohol use and the risk of dementia.

They used Magnetic Resonace Imaging (MRI) and cognitive testing over a 7 year period to evaluate this relationship. They concluded that moderate alcohol consumption lowered the risk of dementia.
Compared to no drinking, both minimal and moderate drinking were associated with lesser decline on the MMSE and Trailmaking tests. Moderate alcohol consumption was also associated with lesser decline on tests of learning and naming. These associations were more pronounced when comparing current drinkers to former drinkers than to lifelong abstainers.

In another study, 3,767 people over 65 in France revealed a statistically significant reduction in Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia in moderate drinkers compared to non drinkers. The mechanism for this is not understood, but some scientists believe that the results may be due to the anti-oxidant effects of red wine in neutralizing peroxidations that come with aging.